Silver glory for Team GB's Jade Etherington

Jade Etherington and guide Caroline Powell crowned their first season racing together by winning Great Britain's first Paralympic medal on snow in 20 years in Sochi.

The pair, who a year ago had never even met, were doing only their third competitive downhill run together and marked the occasion by claiming silver.

It got Britain's Winter Paralympics off to a flying start and ensured that less than an hour into day one they had already exceeded their medal haul from four years ago in Vancouver.

The pair became the first British women ever to win a Paralympic skiing medal, their rise all the more remarkable given how little time they had to build a partnership.

It was only last April that they first got to know each other, August they first skied competitively together and January this year they first competed as a pair in a downhill.

The duo did not even get a training run on Friday because the session was cancelled, but Etherington said: "I actually was really happy there was no training run, because personally I feel if you're going to be scared for your life you might as well get a result at the end of it."

And the Lincoln athlete did just that, finishing in one minute 34.28 seconds, 2.73secs behind Slovakian winner Henrieta Farkasova

She crashed as she cross the line, but was unhurt, with the medal joy more than making up for the bruises.

"I was so happy I'd finished and then couldn't stop I was going that fast," she said.

Her achievement drew praise from Prime Minister David Cameron, who Tweeted: "Proud of Jade Etherington, who won silver in the women's visually impaired downhill in Sochi. £GoParalympicsGB."

Etherington, who celebrates her 23rd birthday on Sunday, is visually impaired and communicates with Powell down the course via radio.

She admitted she was surprised by how quickly the duo had flourished.

Powell, who is 19, added: "It's basically a friendship so you have to build a friendship and that can take years.

"In our case we had to build it within a short space of time, but we were really honest with each other from the beginning. She taught me so much about guiding, I just went with what she said and it's worked. It's come together now and we're so happy."

And things should only get better over the coming week, with four more events to come, including the super-G, in which Etherington won bronze at last year's IPC World Championships, with a different guide.

Team-mate Kelly Gallagher and guide Charlotte Evans were also grateful for four more chances after they could only manage sixth place.

Evans, who was in tears, said: "I am the blubbering wreck, but our communication was awesome and we have no excuse. You can see my disappointment, but we will come back fighting."

Sit-skier Anna Turney also suffered disappointment after crashing out on the "bumpy course".

"I think I got the line slightly wrong, it was so bumpy and I just popped out," said Turney, who was unhurt.

"I wanted to win, it just wasn't my day. It is challenging snow and it is bumpy in places, certainly where I crashed that was bumpy.

"I don't think it was unsafe, but it was definitely challenging. This is an extreme downhill."

"Everyone was like, 'It's so dangerous', but it's a downhill."

The course, which has come in for criticism in the build-up for its "slushy snow", did appear to deteriorate as the day went on, though.

American Tyler Walker crashed spectacularly in the final event of the morning, the men's sitting, and had to be airlifted from the slopes.

The 27-year-old cartwheeled several times, wrecking his monoski, before coming to a halt and being attended to by medical staff on the snow.